What do we mean?

Sexual Violence – is when someone forces, coerces or manipulates someone else into unwanted sexual activity without their consent.

Sexual Harassment – is any unwanted sexual behaviour that makes someone feel upset, scared, offended or humiliated, or is meant to make them feel that way.

Harmful Practices – are discriminatory practices committed regularly over such long periods of time that societies begin to consider them acceptable, they include practice such as female genital mutilation (FGM), breast flattening, so called “Honour based” abuse, forced and child marriage.

Sexual Violence

Sexual violence is an issue in all areas including work and education, In the UK 1 in 4 women and 1 in 18 men have experienced sexual violence as an adult, 1 rape takes place every single day in an educational setting.

We know that only 1 in 6 rapes are reported to the police, this is in part due to a number of rape myths that place blame onto victims/survivors and negatively affects how society views them.

Myth – People who drink or take drugs are responsible if they get raped.

Fact – It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, no one is ever to blame for being raped or sexually assaulted.

Myth – Women lie about being raped because they want attention, revenge, or regret having sex with someone.

Fact – False allegations are extremely rare, in fact most people who experience any form of sexual violence never tell the police.

Myth – It’s not sexual violence if it’s your partner.

Fact – rape is always rape. Consent must be given every single time. It doesn’t matter if you’ve just met or you’ve been together for 50 years, if the other person does not consent, it’s rape and it’s illegal.

Myth – Women shouldn’t go out alone at night to keep themselves safe.

Fact – 86% of rape cases against women are perpetrated by someone they know. In 45% of cases the victim is raped by a partner or ex-partner. The “stranger danger” logic does not apply.

Harmful Practices

Harmful practices cover a number of forms of abuse including female genital mutilation (FGM), breast flattening, child marriage, forced marriage, child abuse linked to faith or belief and so called “honour-based” violence. Harmful practices are dangerous in that they are viewed in many societies as cultural or religious practices, and this can stop them from being seen or labelled as abuse.   

Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as “female circumcision” or “cutting”, is a painful, non-medical procedure undertaken on girls and young women that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, usually without anaesthetics or antiseptic treatments. It can cause emotional trauma as well as leaving girls and women with lifelong health problems. Every single local authority area in the UK is affected by FGM, the NHS FGM annual report identified 5395 cases in England in 2020-2021 however the true extent is unknow due to the hidden nature of the crime.

Honour based abuse (HBA), referred to as “so-called” because there is no honour is abusing someone. “Honour-based” abuse involved violence, threats of violence, intimidation, coercion or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial, emotional) which is committed to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family or community for alleged or perceived breaches of the family or community’s code of behaviour. Honour-based abuse is not linked to any specific community, it cuts across various nationalities, cultures, faith groups and communities.

Forced marriage is when one or both people do not (or in cases of children, people with learning disabilities or reduced capacity cannot) consent to the marriage. They are pressurised, or abuse is used, to force them to do so. Forced marriage is recognised as a serious abuse of human rights, it is illegal in the UK and seen as a form of domestic or child abuse, this including taking someone out of the country for the purposes of a forced marriage. Many forced marriage victims are children who are still in school.

Signposting and Support

If you have been affected by any of the topics covered on this page, it is important to remember that there is help available:

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sexual-health/help-after-rape-and-sexual-assault/

https://thesurvivorstrust.org/

Helpline Number: 0808 801 0818

https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-help/want-to-talk/

Helpline Number: 0808 500 2222

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/female-genital-mutilation-fgm/national-fgm-support-clinics/

https://karmanirvana.org.uk/

Helpline Number: 0800 5999 247

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/

Helpline Number: 0808 168 9111

Samaritans Helpline Number: 116 123